The Theory of Cumulative Stress: How to Recover When Stress Builds Up

It was my first year of graduate school and my professor was standing at
the front of the room.

He was telling our class about a mistake he made
years before.

About a decade earlier, my professor had been one of
the senior executives at Sears, Roebuck & Company, the large
department store chain. They were in the middle of a massive national
campaign and preparing for a major brand launch. My professor was
leading the operation.

For almost two months prior to the launch
day, he was flying all over the country to strike up buzz with major
partners and media companies. While criss-crossing the country on flight
after flight, he was also trying to run his department from the road.

For weeks on end he would meet with the media and business partners all
day, answer emails and phone calls all night, squeeze in three or four
hours of sleep, and wake up to do it all over again.

The week
before the big launch day, his body gave out on him. He had to be rushed
to the hospital. Major organs had started to fail from the chronic
stress. He spent the next eight days lying in a hospital bed, unable to
do anything as the launch day came and went.

Your Bucket of Health and Energy

Imagine that your health and energy are a bucket of water. In your day-to-day life, there are things that fill your bucket up. These are inputs like sleep, nutrition, meditation, stretching, laughter, and other forms of recovery.

There
are also forces that drain the water from your bucket. These are
outputs like lifting weights or running, stress from work or school,
relationship problems, or other forms of stress and anxiety. [1]

The
forces that drain your bucket aren’t all negative, of course. To live a
productive life, it can be important to have some of the things flowing
out of your bucket. Working hard in the gym, at school, or at the
office allows you to produce something of value. But even positive outputs are still outputs and they drain your energy accordingly.

These outputs are cumulative. Even a little leak can result in significant water loss over time.

The Theory of Cumulative Stress

I
usually lift heavy three days per week. For a long time, I thought I
should be able to handle four days per week. However, every time I added
the extra workout in, I would be just fine for a few weeks and then end
up exhausted or slightly injured about a month into the program.

This was frustrating. Why could I handle it for four or five weeks, but not longer than that?

Eventually I realized the issue: stress is cumulative. Three days per week was a pace I could sustain.
When I added that fourth day in, the additional stress started to build
and accumulate. At some point, the burden became too big and I would
get exhausted or injured.

In extreme cases, like that of my
professor, this snowball of stress can start to roll so fast that it
pushes you to the brink of death. But it’s important to realize
that cumulative stress is something that you’re dealing with even when
it isn’t a matter of life or death.

The stress of extra
workouts or additional mileage. The stress of building a business or
finishing an important project. The stress of parenting your young
children or dealing with a bad boss or caring for your aging parents. It
all adds up.

Keeping Your Bucket Full

If you want to keep your bucket full, you have two options.

Refill your bucket on a regular basis. That means catching up on sleep, making time for laughter and fun, eating enough to maintain solid energy levels, and otherwise making time for recovery.

Let
the stressors in your life accumulate and drain your bucket. Once you
hit empty, your body will force you to rest through injury and illness.
Just like it did with my professor.

Recovery is Not Negotiable

I’m in the middle of a very heavy squat program right now (it’s called the Smolov squat program. If you’re interested, I put the spreadsheet up here).

I’ve
spent the last two years training with really easy weights and
gradually working my way up to heavier loads. I’ve built a solid
foundation of strength. But even with that foundation, the weights on
this program are heavy and the intensity is high.

Because of this,
I’m taking special care to allow myself additional recovery. I’m
allowed to sleep longer than usual. If I need to eat more, so be it.
Usually, I’m lazy about stretching and foam rolling, but I have been
rolling my little heart out every day for the last few weeks. I’m doing
whatever I can do to balance the stress and recovery deficit that this
squat program is placing on me.
Why?

Because recovery is not
negotiable. You can either make time to rest and rejuvenate now or make
time to be sick and injured later.

[1] My image of the bucket was inspired by the original idea of the stress and recovery bucket mentioned in Paul Chek’s book, How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy!Thanks to Mark Watts for originally sharing with me the idea that stress is cumulative.James Clear writes at JamesClear.com,
where he shares ideas for using behavior science to help you master
your habits, do better work, and improve your health. For useful ideas
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